Spring Break

What a wonderful idea, give students a short respite in order to invigorate the desire for learning. Well I almost fell asleep in my first class back. I should work as hard in school as I do when I’m playing, I still wouldn’t be a valedictorian but I wouldn’t stress about passing a class.

On Monday of spring break I rode down to Indian Creek with my friend Brad, we arrived just before dark in the Beef Basin campground and set up our tents in the site adjacent to my friend Colby of Ogden. The next day I woke up late, ten-ish in the morning, we ate breakfast and then hiked up to the Bridger Jacks and climbed the two shortest towers while Colby and his girlfriend from Jackson Hole, Katrina, did Vision Quest (burly 5.10+ offwidth). We had a good day and spent the evening BSing around the fire. The next day we went to the Pistol Whipped wall so Colby and his strong buddy Mike could give the three pitch Pistol Whipped (ridiculous looking 5.12-) a go. Brad and I dinked around on a 25 foot 5.8 called short and stupid, it was short and hard like tight #1 hard, next Brad went up a junky 5.7 to access the anchors for a short 5.10 we could TR, it started with fingers and ended with #2’s and had a short roof with ring locks, it was the hardest .10 I’ve yet been on. After dinking around on TR for most of the day we were about to head back to camp, but we took a quick look down the wall and found a 60 foot 10 that called for a bunch of #2’s, so after a bit of guilt tripping from Colby I decided to give it a go, after the previous .10 I wasn’t confident but the thing was fortunately very easy and would probably be considered a .9 by anyone with normal sized hands. At the evening campfire we decided that the next day we should hit up Supercrack Buttress because neither Brad or I had been there. We woke up Thursday ate and packed up then headed to Supercrack with Mike. The trail goes straight to Incredible Hand Crack so we did that first, we let our ropegun Mike put everything up, Brad cleaned up the gear and I cleaned up the anchors, it was a good day although we only did 4 routes total we were good and beat by the time we arrived back at the car and drove back towards Logan.

I arrived in Logan late Thursday, got about five hours of sleep and then took April to the dentist because one of her wisdom teeth is causing some pain due to an infection. The doctor gave her an antibiotic and scheduled her for a removal of all four teeth today (Monday). This dentist is really friendly and is doing the removal for around $400 less than she was quoted a few months ago, despite all teeth being impacted. Unfortunately this is supposed to be one of April’s busiest weeks this month, but her work is understanding and will allow her to cancel a few events and has found replacements for a few other appointments. I am just hoping that the pain killers work without making her ill; she doesn’t always react well to narcotics.

On Friday I started training for my level 1 avalanche certificate, it will be for my job so not only do I get this for free but will get paid for it. My coworkers and I sat in class for three hours Friday night and spent eight hours on Saturday tromping around in the snow doing beacon searches and snow pit inspection. This training is fun, and although I felt like crap hiking in Indian Creek I was easily outpacing everyone on Saturday, partly cause I walk fast and partly cause I have the longest legs of em all. Next Saturday we finish our class, we should be going to the area that we will be working, on snowmobiles, so the instructors can point out hazardous areas and we can determine the proper routes of travel. I sure hope that an avalanche doesn’t occur, but my boss is more paranoid than I am so we are getting some great tools in case one does like brand new beacons, Avalung, shovel and probe. The job will be fun and relatively safe.